About Cal Skinner

We Hate Spam!

We have recently instituted a system of spam control that helps keep the McHenry County Blog a lean, mean information machine. A side product of this process is that in certain cases you might be blocked or challenged to prove that you aren't a robot in order to comment on articles.

If for some reason the automated processes that are in place to prove that you are a human do not work, or if you have any other technical problems with the blog, please email techguy at any time for speedy resolution.

Huntley is growing like crazy after the I-90 interchange, right? (no).

The Algonquin Rd bypass has generated a lot of extra construction, right? (no).

Oh, and all these “improvements” have caused our taxes to go down, right? (no).

Now the county board wants to spend $10 Million + to bulldoze the health dept building in front of the courthouse and renovate the building at 666 Russell ct to expand it to increase capacity for social services that we already can’t afford?!

“traffic counts show volumes are increasing but, generally, still remain below the levels eight years ago before the wheels fell off the national economy. Particularly at the Randall/Algonquin roads intersection.”

There’s no doubt that at certain times of the day, and especially at certain times on Saturday, the Randall/Algonquin intersection is congested.

The questions to ask are

(a) how congested is the intersection, and

(b) is there an economical solution?

Emphasis on the word “economical”: there’s always a solution, but if it’s too expensive, then it’s better to live with congestion.

The first question can be answered only if we know the amount of traffic going through the intersection, hour by hour and day by day, breaking out the number going straight, turning left, and turning right.

Only with these facts can we determine the scope of the problem.

If several hours a day people are being forced to wait several minutes to get through the intersection, we have a serious problem.

But if the intersection is congested for only a few hours a week and/or if people are forced to wait for only one or two lights, then we have a minor problem.

When we have these facts, then we can determine the cheapest configuration that solves the problem and compare the cost with the benefit.

Now, having said that, there are some facts that should give us pause and should make us wonder if the solution being promoted is the best.

First, there are NO other intersections that have triple left turn lanes on Randall Road, not even at I-90.

In fact, I only know of one triple left turn lane in all of Illinois, and that’s on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.

So if we added one additional lane for half a mile in each direction and re-striped in order to create dual left turn lanes, that would be a total of two lane-miles, which should cost around $4 million.

Let’s assume for some reason this is a much more difficult project and bump that by 100%: $8 million.

That’s a fraction of what’s being proposed.

So, for a second reason, I’d want definitive proof that there’s not a cheaper solution AND, FOR THE PROPOSED SOLUTION, PROOF THAT THE BENEFIT OUTWEIGHS THE COST, i.e., that the solution doesn’t cost $1 a turn to save two minutes per left-turning driver or some such number.